House Wyrmseed
by Umodin
Summary: During the Dance of Dragons, when Princess Rhaenyra was low on men she gave the various Targaryen bastards on Dragonstone the chance to tame what were six unbound dragons. Four of the six took riders, and of those four riders three were killed, as were their dragons. It has been a long asked question of what happened to the fourth rider, the lone woman of the group... Until now.
Pale hands touched the spine of the book. Leather covering and papyrus pages littering the story in front of him. He opened it, and read quietly.

 _The Dance of Dragons. The most famous war for Targaryen succession in the history of Westeros, fought between the Princess Rhaenyra and her half-brother Aegon II that nearly destroyed the realm._

 _The Dance of Dragons was in truth the name for a Targaryen civil war where the North, Vale and Riverlands sided with Rhaenyra while the Reach, Stormlands and Westerlands sided with Aegon. Before the war, House Targaryen counted eighteen dragons, by the end there were only two, and nearly as few Targaryens._

 _The Dance began, as many dances do, with an old man and a young girl. The Queen had failed to produce a son for her King, so he anointed his daughter, the Princess Rhaenyra as his heir. She already had two children at the time, both were boys, so the line of succession would not be questioned should she crown her eldest while she ruled in his stead until he was of age._

 _Years later the King remarried and his new wife, Queen Alicent of House Hightower, gave him a son, Aegon. But, the King was an honorable man that stuck by his words, and refused to change the line of succession from Rhaenyra to Aegon. The King was old, so old that he didn't even see how his court had split into two rival camps, the Blacks that vouched for Princess Rhaenyra and the Greens that vouched for Prince Aegon._

 _Years later, the King died in his sleep. It was never proven if it was merely from old age or poison, but in the end it mattered little. Protocol dictated that the bells be wrung and a letter sent to Dragonstone to Princess Rhaenyra for her coronation, but Queen Alicent was the first to learn of his death. She summoned the Small Council to inform them of the King's death and demanded that the succession be settled immediately, a statement mirrored by the Hand of the King; her father._

 _The Small Council was confused. In their minds the succession was settled years ago when the old King forced the lords of Westeros to swear fealty to Princess Rhaenyra as his heir. The Queen pointed out that a son comes before a daughter, and the Small Council argued for hours upon hours. Finally, the Master of Coin stood up and said he would have no part in treason, and throat was cut, ending the debate._

 _None were more surprised to hear of Prince Aegon II's succession than Prince Aegon II himself. At first he rejected the crown, but his Queen-mother quickly pointed out that his sister, Princess Rhaenyra, would return such loyalty by taking his head. She was well known to be a brutal woman, having been given the title of Warrior Princess in the same manner as King Aegon I's sister wives_

 _Aegon relented._

 _He was crowned King by the High Septon soon after and his wife and sister Helaena became Queen. His brother, Aemond, flew off on the back of Vhaegar, the last of the dragons from King Aegon I's conquest of Westeros, to gain the support of the Great Housess who had remained neutral. The banner of the gold dragon flew high above Kings Landing, Aegon's personal sigil after his own dragon Sunfyre, said to have been the most beautiful beast in the world, as Aegon Targaryen second of his name ascended the Iron Throne. But he would not sit it long._

 _When ravens carried the news of Aegon's coronation to Dragonstone, Princess Rhaeynra summoned her council, later dubbed the Black Council. It was made up of her uncle and husband, Daemon Targaryen, said to be the most dangerous man in Westeros, known as the Wyrm, and wielder of the Valyrian Steel blade Dark Sister. Corlis Valarion, who controlled the largest fleet in the realm, and his Targaryen wife Rhaenys, the old King's sister. Then there were her five sons, further proof in her mind that she was rightfully the Queen. Her assembly was small, combined they couldn't match the force of House Hightower alone, but Rhaenyra had dragons. She, Daemon and Rhaenys all rode adult dragons while three of her sons rode youngling dragons, and even then there were six more dragons that did not have riders nested in Dragonstone._

 _Dragons can burn cities, but only armies can take and hold them. If she was to prevail against her half-brother, she needed the aid of the few Great Houses not already sworn to Aegon. Her eldest son, Jaekerys, flew to the Vale while her middle son, Lucaerys, flew to the Stormlands._

 _Upon reaching the Stormlands on the back of his dragon Arax, Lucaerys sought an audience with the Lord of Storms End. He received it, and standing next to the high chair where Lord Baratheon sat was King Aemon's younger brother Aemond, rider of Vhaegar. Lucaerys was quickly and bluntly told that the Stormlands would not support his mother, and he fled. Songs tell that it was a night where the storms of old returned, and while Arax had trouble flying back to Dragonstone Vhaegar had no such issue. The gargantuan form of Vhaeger, over five times the size of Arax, with Aemond on his back descended upon the pair in a blaze of fire. So ended the first of the Targaryen dragons, and the life of Prince Lucaerus. So too, did the start of the civil war begin._

 _Her first action came in the form of her husband, Daemon on the back of his dragon Caraxes taking Harrenhal. The Blacks had gained the strongest castle in all of Westeros. While that happened, Winterfell declared for Rhaenyra due to her sons, as had the Vale due to the influence of Jaekerys, crippling King Aegon II's claim. Furious, King Aegon dismissed his grandfather as his Hand and appointed Ser Kristen Cole, a member of his Kingsguard the position. Ser Kristen declared that he would march on all the lords that had declared for Rhaenyra and put their castles to the torch._

 _Cole and the Royal Army first and laid siege to Rooks Rest, one of the Blacks most reliable keeps near the coast of Dragonstone. When the lord saw their approach, he sent a raven to Dragonstone. What was written has not be detailed, but it is believed that it was a plea to Princess Rhaenyra for help. His plea succeeded, and help arrived three days later in the form of Rhaenys on her dragon Maelys. It turned out to be a trap, because Rhaenys was met by the Aemond on Vhaegar and King Aemon himself atop Sunfyre. Dragon fought dragon, and by the end of the bout Rhaenys died, as did Maelys, while Vhaegar barely was scratched. Sunfyre, however, lost a wing and King Aegon plummeted to the ground with his mount, wounds littering his body. King Aegon was wounded terribly, his armor was burned in such a way that it fused with his flesh. His body survived, but his mind was given over to milk of the poppy._

 _Panicked by the defeated, Rhaenyra shipped her two youngest sons across the Narrow Sea for their protection. Her youngest returned days later, his dragon nearly dead and did die days later. He and his brother had been set upon by an enemy fleet just off the coast of Dragonstone. Rhaenyra had ordered all her children to stay at Dragonstone, but Jaekerys, her heir, had mounted his dragon Vermax and flew to rescue his younger brother and destroy the enemy fleet. He was captured quickly; Vermax was harpooned down into the sea and took Jaekerys with him. It is unknown what happened to the younger son, some claim he survived while most believe him to be dead._

 _With the death of three of her sons and four Targaryen dragons Rhaenyra's only advantage was fading. Her husband had told her that House Targaryen had, over the centuries, spilled more than blood in Dragonstone. She promised gold and title to any of the Targaryen bastards that could tame the six unclaimed dragons on the island. Hundreds died, but four of the dragons accepted riders, three men and one woman. These bastards were given the name Dragonseeds by Rhaenyra and enlisted in her cause._

 _After Rooks Rest, Aemond Targaryen took control of the Royal Army from Cole while King Aegon was under the lull of the poppy. He marched the army north, to take back Harrenhal from Daemon, and found it empty. Daemon had snuck south, past Aemond, on the back of Caraxes and, along with Rhaenyra on her dragon Syrax and took Kings Landing. When Aemond went north, he took the whole of the Royal Army as well as Vhaegar, leaving Kings Landing defenseless. The Small Council agreed without issue, and handed Rhaenyra the Queen-mother Alicent and Queen Helaena soon after, but King Aegon was not there. It is said, that when Rhaenyra sat herself on the Iron Throne her body bled, showing that the throne had spurned her._

 _When Aemond learned that the capital was lost, he mounted Vhaegar and burned the local villages in rage. The Riverlords were quick to kill Ser Kristen Cole while he tried to march the Royal Army back to Kings Landing to take the city back in King Aegon's name, as they firmly stood with the newly crowned Queen Rhaenyra._

 _When a new army of Green loyalists sprouted the Reach and sieged the city of Tumbleton soon after Rhaenyra sent two of her Dragonseeds to burn them. The Dragonseeds did ride to Tumbleton, but they burned not the opposing army but the city itself, betraying Queen Rhaenyra and causing her to issue the order for all of the Dragonseeds to die._

 _One of the Dragonseeds was in the castle and was killed per the Queens order, but the last of them, the woman of the group, had been with Daemon on Dragonstone. She had taken to being his consort while his wife was at the capital, and he'd grown fond of her. In his personal journal, Daemon proclaimed the order a "Queens words but a whore's work," and wrote that he sent his consort away on the back of her dragon, with no knowledge of her destination. He then issued a challenge by raven to his nephew Aemond and flew to Harrenhal alone to wait._

 _The details of the bout between Daemon and Aemond have been told in many ways, but the end result has always been the same. Caraxes and Vhaegar fought each other ferociously, both secured wounds to the wings and were falling to the rivers surrounding Harrenhal. Daemon, wielding Dark Sister, leapt off of Caraxes and plunged the Valyrian steel blade into the skull of his nephew. When the dragons fell to the lake, the water was said to have sprung up so high that it reached the great tower of Harrenhal itself. The lake boiled in dragon blood and the last of the dragons from Aegon the Conquerors landing died._

 _Rhaenyra did not have the mind to retaliate for the death of her husband, not when Kings landing itseld rose in protest. A man known as the shepherd called the people, more than ten thousand men and women, and told them that their pain was not caused by men, but by dragons. Not just the enemy's dragons but all dragons in general. He pointed at the pit where the dragons lay and told the people that if they were to be free from fear of fire, they needed to kill that which brings the flame. There were four dragons housed in the pit that night, and by the end of it none survived, but none of the ten thousand men and women did either._

 _Rhaenyra watched as her family's legacy was destroyed. She did not pay attention to her oldest son Joffrey stealing Syrax and trying to save the pit. Dragons only respond to one rider at a time, this is a well-documented writ. Syrax would only listen to Rhaenyra, so when Joffrey mounted her she fought him midair, and it is said the Queen Rhaenyra herself watched as he son fell from the sky into the streets of Kings Landing. Syrax was shot down by the people that same night. Just the same, the Dragonseeds that sacked Tumbleton had their throats slit and their dragons slain mere days after._

 _Rhaenyra sold her crown to buy a ship for her and her last son to Dragonstone, intent on hatching more dragons. When she arrived, she expected to see her host of Blacks awaiting her command. Instead, the welcoming party slew her guards and marched her and her son into the castle to face a dead man and a dying dragon._

 _King Aegon II sat the highchair of Dragonstone, Sunfyre next to him missing a wing. Sunfyre, on the order of his rider, bathed her in golden flame, and ate her in seven bites; one for each aspect of the Seven. Her son watched, held back by the guards of Dragonstone and taken as King Aegon's ward and prisoner._

 _With Rhaenyra dead, King Aegon II sat the Iron Throne once more, but only for half a year. His dragon, Sunfyre, had succumbed to wounds on the trip to Kings Landing and died aship. Aegon was poisoned by his own men, and replaced with the very boy who'd watched his mother devoured. On the same day, a rogue member of the Kingsguard sworn to King Aegon found the last tame dragon, Vermax, and slew it in his dead Kings name. It was the mount of the Dragonseed that died on Queen Rhaenyra's order._

 _When Rhaenyra's last son wed King Aegon's only daughter, the Dance of Dragons ended. The only dragons remaining under Targaryen control were the two that never took up riders, and upon seeing their brethren slaughter they kept that way. They mated, had eggs and hatched them, but all of their hatchlings grew smaller and smaller, until the last of them died the size of a cat. In rage, a Targaryen slew the two dragons, ending the symbol of his House._

 _There are some curiosities of the Dance. Many wish to know whether Dark Sister was ever reclaimed. Some ask what happened to Queen Rhaenyra's son that was lost at sea. But, the greatest of all these questions is the one with the most varied of answers: What happened to the last of the Dragonseeds? And her dragon?_

He closed the book with a smile on his face. He'd always loved the last part of the book. Violet eyes peered out the window, and a gout of fire erupted from the mouth of the great beast outside.

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A/N: Umodin back with another attempt at a story. Everything said above in italics is property of George R. R. Martin and the staff of Game of Thrones. The events above are the shortened version of the Dance of Dragons war in written form for enjoyment of readers.

When the dvd of a GoT season is released, they have an added hour of lore shorts for people that haven't read the books to get more into the series. Generally, they'll be five minutes a piece, spoken by the actors that play the role of our favorite characters. For example, Kit Harrington the actor of Jon Snow, did a short with the lore of the North. This season, with the release of the Season 5 dvd they had a twenty minute long detail for the Dance of Dragons read by Viserys Targaryen, Robert Baratheon, Joffrey Baratheon, Catelyn Stark and Shireen Baratheon.

I got the opportunity to watch it, and the staff that makes these little lore videos did an absolutely amazing job. With that said, I just couldn't help but think of a story when it mentioned that one dragon and Dragonseed that escaped. I'd like to note that while the video states that only 2 dragons lived, they did not go into detail how three dragons died, so I added that in myself.

My story idea is that a descendant of the Dragonseed that escaped has been found worthy by her dragon, and shakes the very foundation of Westeros. After all, nobody has seen a dragon in over a hundred years. I don't really have a plan for it, it's just a prologue that can go with absolutely anything, but it does leave tons of doors open. I could start it with the start of GoT, I could start it during Roberts Rebellions, the War of Five Kings, the Sacking of Mereen... It gives me a lot of options.

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